Britain and Vietnam on Friday finalised a free trade agreement (FTA), the second deal London has reached in Southeast Asia in as many days while deadlock continues over post-Brexit European Union (EU) arrangements.The deal with Vietnam comes into force 1 January, 2021 and will be Britain's third, following Thursday's pact with Singapore and October's first post-Brexit trade deal with Japan.Vietnam stands to benefit from tariff savings of £114 million (US$150.6 million) on its e

The recent signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between ASEAN and five Asia-Pacific countries (China, Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand) has created the world’s largest free-trade zone that covers about a third of the world’s population and accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).The European Union (EU) is not a signatory to RCEP, but is paying close attention to it.

In his video address to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a slight improvement of China’s 2015 Paris climate agreement pledge: national carbon dioxide emissions should now peak before 2030 rather than around 2030.

The 15 November agreement to form the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) between the 10 members of ASEAN and Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand has only modest immediate economic effects for the European Union (EU).  However, with China playing a central role in the new arrangement, the long-term strategic and geopolitical implications are major.

In December 2018, the European Union (EU) revised the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) also called RED II which bans the use of palm oil.

Elections tend to bring differences to the fore. That is certainly true of the United States’ (US) recent presidential election. Among the most bitterly contested elections in the country’s history, the outcome will have profound implications for many aspects of US policy.

With the United States (US) presidential election nearing its apotheosis, predictions about what will come after are dominating discussions well beyond the US. When it comes to international relations, forecasts range from apocalyptic to cautiously optimistic. But what is needed is an actual way forward, grounded in realism.By realism, I don’t mean the “realist” approach to international relations, which emphasises the role of sovereign states as self-interested actors.

The outcome of the United States (US) presidential election on 3 November will have momentous consequences for America in terms of economic policy, racial justice, the judiciary, health care, and the overall quality of its democracy. But the election’s international effects could be equally far-reaching and lasting.

There is no single future until it happens, and any effort to envision geopolitics in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic must include a range of possible futures. I suggest five plausible futures in 2030, but obviously others can be imagined.The End Of The Globalised Liberal OrderThe world order established by the United States (US) after World War II created a framework of institutions that led to a remarkable liberalisation of international trade and finance.

Xi Jinping's vow to snuff out emissions by 2060 completes a diplomatic pirouette that moves China to the heart of the global green agenda, wrong-foots the United States (US) and cuddles up to Europe's climate advocates in one nimble step.The Chinese leader last month chose the United Nations (UN) as the stage for his country's unexpected pledge to reach peak coal use by 2030 and go carbon neutral three decades later.The announcement gives China – the world's biggest pollut